First time I've ever been ticketed while running in Chicago (Read 1481 times)

I checked out of this thread because, well frankly, it was getting too serious. It sounds like the final disposition was supervision plus community service, resulting in no criminal record. For the record, this is what I predicted would happen if RedBird did the smart thing and hired a lawyer. The community service was an optional "add on" from the court -- annoying perhaps, but not particularly relevant to the final conclusion. So, in the end, the right result was reached.

Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made. But they're both yummy in the end.

Of course a lawyer would say that. But do you see all the stuff they put into a sausage?

Truth be told, this is a case where you would have to know what would have happened WITHOUT a lawyer in order to compare the two. That of course is not possible. I suppose we can argue all day and you'll think the lawyer was necessary, whereas I predicted close to the outcome as well (I was about 12.00 off on the fine, I predicted 200.00, actual was just a tad higher.), but I think he would have gotten same result with a lawyer or not.

There are 108 pages of lawyers in my local phone book. the biggest section and it grows every year. This idea that everyone 'needs a lawyer' for every little tiny ridiculous thing is sad to me at least. The idea that 2 folks cannot work something out for themselves, or cannot go before a judge on matters as simple as traffic tickets or 'trespassing' tickets and plead their own easy case is depressing. But it is what is. One more thing the average Joe cannot do for himself: Stand before a judge and explain his case on such a simple matter? Pay a lawyer $500.00 to 1,000.00 to do 90 seconds of work speaking to the judge, stating the same simple facts that a person can for themselves? But anyway...

He was jogging near some damn tracks that were not fenced. The idea that someone would get a 'criminal' record from such an action is ridiculous. Judges have common sense (most of the time?) and I feel strongly the same result would have happened either with, or without a lawyer. The Lawyer was the only added expense here that was unnecessary.

Main point: Lawyers are needed for some things, but not everything. Lawyer in this little case? A waste of Several Hundred dollars.

Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made. But they're both yummy in the end.

While I agree with the first quote (from Otto von Bismarck), the second sentence seems off target to me. Laws are not necessarily "yummy in the end" for many civil and criminal litigants (and crime victims). The legal system does not always operate in a fair and just manner, and laws themselves are often unjust. And while hiring a lawyer can often improve your odds in many cases (including the one at issue here), it is by no means a guarantee of a "yummy" result in any case.